Accidental Hack Into The Gate
by MyEpic
Summary: Steins;Gate Future is coming out soon, and Maxine is one of the first to play the English version. Surely this will just be an innocent story about a girl playing a visual novel, right? ;) Spoilers for Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0
1. Chapter 1

**AD 2021.03.28 16:32:21:58**

I've been waiting for a while for this now, but it's finally coming out. Steins;Gate Future has gone gold in Japanese and my friend has been working hard at the company recruited to translate it to get it to that state for its simultaneous release in the west. He's been working pretty hard at it so it's nearly finished now. It just needed some play testing, and I would never turn down the opportunity to play it early.

So here I am now, playing through the game. 5pb has somehow done it again; they've made an amazing addition to the series. It's fully animated like Steins;Gate Elite and somehow makes you feel involved to a groundbreaking degree despite our expectations. You can send the characters text messages that you type out yourself, and they actually respond as if they were real people. It feels real too; It must be a level of AI nobody's ever seen before, being used in Steins;Gate of all places.

I think I've found a bug in the translation patch though, my game just froze. The AI must not be able to fully understand the English language yet, which is understandable; English is one of the harder languages after all. Not soon after I begin to feel nauseous. I don't really think anything of it though; I have been playing this game non-stop for over 20 hours now. As my nausea worsens I suddenly get intense headache to go with it, causing me to pass out.

* * *

I awaken faster than you can snap your fingers. The headache is gone, and my nausea is going away slowly. I am immediately frightened to see that I am standing in the middle of a sidewalk outside. I accidentally drop something, which turns out to be a bag of some sort. I take in my surroundings. I've never seen this road before, but the big building in front of me looks eerily familiar.

Then I notice who is in front of me. "O-Okabe Rintaro," I say slowly, only to startle myself. My voice doesn't really sound like my voice anymore? He turns to face who called his name and I can only be paralyzed with fear; Okabe Rintaro is standing face to face with me in front of Radio Kaikan.

After taking a second and probably failing to recognize who had called him, he says something I cannot understand: " **How is it that you know the name I use to deceive the Organization?** " I mentally curse myself for not taking the time to learn at least some basic Japanese. I take a moment to try and figure out how to respond to what he said. Obviously he had spoken as Hououin Kyouma just now…

Shock fading away now, I spot Kurisu next to him looking at me suspiciously now because I must be acting strange. Wait, someone who speaks English! I'm saved! "Kurisu, what did he say just now?" Kurisu jumps in surprise at my causal way of speaking to her; which was a mistake because now she is next to try and fail to recognize me.

"Have we met before?" she asks.

"…No"

"Then how do you know our names?"

"I… It's complicated," I say in a defeated manner.

Kurisu studies my actions carefully, almost as if she's trying to link them to something she's seen before. She then begins asking me some questions.

"Who is he?" she asks pointing at Okabe.

"That's Okabe Rintaro, the leader of the Future Gadget Lab in the Steins;Gate seri-" I quickly put a hand over my mouth. Whoops. I just got baited hardcore right there.

"Where is the Future Gadget Lab?"

"…Above the Braun Tube Workshop," I say giving in. Seeing that my answer was correct, I realize I now have to accept what happened in the game as real when talking to people here.

"What is Steins Gate?"

I glance around before saying quietly, "It's a world line without time travel, created by time travel."

She looks at me in disbelief as I say this, so I say the only thing that I can to explain myself: "Sorry. You've probably already figured this out, but... I don't belong here."

She takes a step closer to me and whispers: "You're a time traveler?"

"…No, I don't think so. It's more like I came from another world entirely," I whisper back.

This shocks her even more, but only for a moment because she has already found a glaring issue with my claim. "If that's true then how do you know us?"

"Like I said, it's complicated… and we really shouldn't talk about it out in the open like this," I say hoping she'll understand.

She sighs and turns back to Okabe who looks like he was able to put together most of what we were saying but was struggling to do so. She explains the situation to him filling in the bits he didn't get, his expression slowly turning frightened. Obviously the fact that I know all about the lab and world lines without him ever seeing me before must be frightening. Maybe he thinks I'm a Rounder or something.

He snaps out of it though, returning as Hououin Kyouma to say in broken English, "Come, we go where the Organization cannot listen." He then dramatically runs down the street leaving us in the dust. Kurisu and I look at each other for a moment and begin the chase after him.

He stays ahead of us, but is careful not to lose us in the busy streets of Akihabara. We are eventually lead to another place I recognize, May Queen Nyan Nyan. Yes, a maid café is _definitely not_ out in the open, I think to myself. Even though I seem to be able to keep up just fine, Kurisu is lagging behind gasping for air. It's surprising because I was never too athletic to begin with; I should be doing way worse than her right now.

" **Welcome back myasters-** Kyouma!" Feris rushes over to us after she notices who is with us. Okabe and Feris then begin chatting avidly about something, probably something ridiculous as usual judging by Kurisu's facial reaction.

While they're talking we get spotted by Daru who was already eating here. Kurisu asks me who he is and I answer easily, but she doesn't seem to be too surprised by it anymore. We then decide to go sit with him at his table.

Daru waits for me to introduce myself, but I… can't. He starts to get a little nervous because of the awkwardness of the situation. " **Okarin who is she?** "

" **She's…** hey what's your name again?" Okabe asks realizing he had never asked my name.

"I'm… Maxine," I say after a short pause. I wonder if that's even what my name is on this world line.

" **This is** Maxina," he says dramatically, emphasizing the –ina.

" **Stop adding –ina to our names!** " Kurisu says glaring at Okabe.

I become more and more visibly defeated as the conversation continues. Not being able to understand what anyone's saying is a huge barrier I hadn't thought of before. As my mind wanders I start to think about what the me from before I got here was like. I bet I used to be able to speak fluent Japanese…

" **Hey, what's wrong, nya?** " someone says to me bringing me back to reality. I look to who spoke and it's none other than Feris. It seems like she was the only one to notice me staring off in the distance.

"Feris-" I start to say but then realize she won't understand a word I say beyond her name. I slump down somehow even more defeated than before.

"Nya?" she says surprised at my reaction.

" **She doesn't speak Japanese,** Feris," Okabe says quietly.

By now the whole table has noticed the state that I'm in. "Sorry… I forgot you couldn't understand us," Kurisu says apologetically. "…It's not like you missed anything though!" she says glaring at Okabe.

"It's okay Kurisu. I should probably learn some Japanese since I'll probably be stuck here a while."

"I can recommend you some classes if you want…" she offers.

"…This sounds weird, but... I don't actually know what my name was, so I don't think I can register."

"Your name's not Maxina?" Okabe asks.

"I know my name is Maxine, but the me that was here before was probably called something else. This world is so different from where I came from; I wouldn't be surprised."

Kurisu suddenly remembers why we came here in the first place and a curious look takes over her face. "How did you get here anyway?"

"Well, I…" I pause for a moment to collect my thoughts, "In my world there was this video game called Steins;Gate, where the main plot was Okabe's journey through the Alpha world line."

"Wait, are you trying to say we're in a video game right now?" Kurisu asks looking a little frightened.

"I don't think so. We couldn't possibly have the technology for something like that yet," I reassure her.

" **A viewport to other world lines…** " Okabe says thinking out loud.

Kurisu ponders whatever he just said for a moment, before saying "But if that's true then that means that you or whoever played the game would be controlling Okabe. Surely that can't be the case!"

"Well, the first two games are just visual novels. There isn't really any meaningful control to be had there. The third game gives you a lot more freedom in how you interact with the characters though still being a visual novel," I say feeling awkward describing these _real people_ as video game characters.

"Freedom?" Okabe says nervously.

"You see, text messages were a part of the game where you could get some extra interaction with the characters. In the first couple games they were prewritten, but in the latest one you could actually type out what you wanted to say. I was actually play testing one of the first English builds of the game when it froze up on me. Then I suddenly felt really dizzy and I think I fainted. When I woke up I was standing in front of the radio building."

"Reading Steiner…" Okabe says.

Reading Steiner? Could this really be described as time travel? I guess since the theory is that the universe is infinite it might be possible. Even then, I must have come from a divergence somewhere in like the thousands for this much to be different. What could I even have done to trigger such a massive change?

Looking around the table, Kurisu looks like she's thinking pretty hard about the suggestion Okabe just made, while Daru and Feris are waiting for someone to tell them what's going on. Okabe notices it quickly now that it has happened once before and begins to fill them in while we think.

"I guess it's possible," Kurisu says admitting defeat, "but we don't even know the cause. What made her jump from such a different world line to this one?"

 ** _To:_ Mayuri**

 ** _Sub:_ Re: Stay Safe!**

 **This will be no easy task Mayuri. I'm %22 sure that the Organization will be up to no good today, but they are no match for I, the insane mad scientist Hououin Kyouma!**

About 12 minutes have passed now and we have come up with nothing; we're stumped. The only clue we have is the fact that it seemed like that last text message _crashed the game._ The problem is that the contents of the text message was just me roleplaying as Kyouma since he was supposed to be the sender.

We decide to head to the lab since Mayuri is there now. On the way I see something, or rather someone, I was hoping not to see. The fact that she exists in this world line can only mean one thing: this is no longer the Steins Gate world line. Okabe follows my frightened stare only to have his gaze become frightened as well; he's thinking the same thing.

"Suzuha…" we both say slowly at the same time.

Okabe then makes a sudden dash up the stairs to the lab. "Okabe!" Kurisu calls after him. Daru begins the chase after him, but Kurisu hasn't recovered from the last time so she instead turns to me, immediately noticing the look on my face. "What's wrong? What's going on?"

"Suzuha is back," I say in a somber tone.

"Suzuha… the time traveler right?"

"Right."

"Okay, what's so bad about that though? Weren't they friends?" Kurisu asks confused.

"The fact that Suzuha travelled back in time means that this is no longer the Steins Gate world line. My mere existence must have somehow negated all the work Okabe did to get here," I say feeling guilty.

"Don't say that! It's not like you wanted this to happen…" Kurisu comforts me.

"You're right, but I can't help feeling like something really terrible is going to happen soon now. Every time she was here it was to prevent either a dystopia or World War III…"

Kurisu suddenly looks frightened; she must have forgotten that detail. "M-Maybe I should go ask her why she came back then. Surely it can't be-"

"Ooh can you ask her what the divergence number is too?"

"…The what?" Okabe must have left out that detail when he told her.

"She had a meter used to measure the divergence of the current world line in the Alpha attractor field. Steins Gate should be 1 . 0 4 something something."

"Okay." She says determined to prove me wrong. She begins the walk over to Suzuha. I hope _I am_ wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

**AD 2012.06.13 16:32:21:04**

 **%1.000012**

It has been almost two months since then. We were devastated to have found out that World War III was still on its way and that the world line had changed. Interestingly, it seems I've also gone back in time 9 years too. Kurisu theorizes that time in AD had started being recorded 9 years earlier in my home world line. That seems like a rather large change for a single meaningless text message though.

Speaking of Kurisu, she was nice enough to let me stay at her apartment with her. She seemed to justify it by saying that she should stay with me until I learned some basic Japanese, which isn't wrong, but I think she's been enjoying staying with someone.

With Kurisu and Ruka helping me I got the hang of the Japanese language surprisingly quickly. Probably because it's the native language of the previous me before I came to this world line; to this body it's basically second nature.

Not soon after, Okabe declared I was Lab Mem number _zero zero ten_ (00X). I had to admit that it was a good choice on his part to go for the roman numeral; if he didn't it would sound lame. Now we're at the lab again doing… pretty much nothing as usual. Mayuri's getting her costumes ready for Comima and Okabe is fighting with Kurisu over who knows what. It didn't take too long for me to get settled in here, but I can't seem to forget the looming threat of the future.

That's when I hear a knock at the door. Since the door was casually unlocked like always, whoever it was simply opened it after knocking.

"Maho?" I say casually. I realize I had made the same mistake as always when Maho looks in my direction.

Kurisu immediately stops arguing and turns around when she heard that name. "Maho-senpai! What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to surprise you and come see how you're doing. You haven't been back to the university in a while…" Maho says a little sadly, "Also, there's a presentation on Amadeus tomorrow."

I visibly shudder in my seat after hearing this. I swiftly recover so that I can seem innocently interested. "Amadeus, what's that?" I ask. Luckily, I can get away with this because I've only told them about the events of Steins;Gate, not Steins;Gate 0.

Maho looks at me as if she was terribly confused by the question. She then looks to Kurisu who saw nothing wrong with the question, so she reluctantly took the bait. "Amadeus is an AI which uses someone's memories to make decisions. It's almost like talking to a real human."

"Really?" Mayuri asks excitedly.

This was the answer I was expecting, so I'm able to stay strong enough for the second question. "That's cool. What are the practical implications of something like this though?"

I flew a little too close to the sun this time; my lack of surprise tipped off a now suspicious Kurisu. She doesn't stop Maho from answering though. "A-Ah well we're still researching this, but it could in theory be used as a memory backup device. That way if you lose your memories you can just reload your old ones from a backup."

"Interesting," I say to myself. What does this mean? I think Kurisu and Maho might have been at the lab at the same time once before in an audio drama before, but this seems more like the opening to Steins;Gate 0 than that.

Kurisu is still looking me with curious eyes, causing me to shrink back a little. "What?" I ask pretending to not know.

Now it's Hououin Kyouma's time to shine again. "Lab Mem number zero zero nine! Hiyajosephina," he says once again putting emphases on the –ina. I had to tell Okabe who Lab Mem 009 was for him to reserve that number for her, but I got away without telling him the full story. I didn't feel right taking it for myself.

"Are you kidding me?" Kurisu says furiously. She then realizes something. "Wait, zero zero _nine_? You reserved nine for Maho? Why?"

"Because that is the will of Steins Gate," he answers. Looks like Kyouma saved me from her questioning me again.

"Was it because of Maxine?" she asks glaring at Okabe.

"Ghck… no."

"Hehe… Okarin's a terrible liar," Mayuri says in a teasing voice.

Kurisu then turns her glare on me. Maho meanwhile was becoming more and more intrigued at the scene in front of her.

"Kurisuuu!" I whisper gesturing to Maho. Kurisu is quick to catch on to what I'm saying and drops it for now.

Then it becomes awkward because we're not sure how to get the topic away from this mess. "So Kurisu, what have you been up to for the past 3 months? Surely it couldn't be-"

"Christina has been here – at the glorious Future Gadget Laboratory!" Kyouma returns to say.

"…Oh," Maho says sadly. "…Well, I have to go get stuff ready for the seminar." Maho hastily makes her exit sensing the situation becoming awkward again.

Once a minute passes Kurisu begins her questioning. "How did you know Maho-senpai?" she asks Okabe first.

"Maxina told me her name and what she looked like," Okabe quickly confesses.

Kurisu then turns to me. "How did you know?"

"Ah, well… I only told you about the events that take place in the first game; the Alpha attractor field. The second game is Okabe's journey through the Beta attractor field. The reason I didn't mention it is because the Okabe standing in front of you isn't the one who went on that journey; the one who sent the video D-Mail from the future did. Sorry…"

"Why were you asking about Amadeus if you already knew about it then?" Okabe asks.

"Okabe, you already have plans to go to Professor Leskinen's seminar, don't you?"

"Yeah… wait, she was talking about _his_ seminar?"

I nod. "I just wanted to know if what was happening was what I thought it was," I say trying to hide my emotions. This turn of events is worrying. Before we weren't sure, but now I think this world line could be headed toward Beta convergence. Kurisu isn't fooled, but she lets it go for now sensing I don't want to talk about it.

"So… should I not go to the seminar?" Okabe asks a little confused.

"No, no, it's fine. Besides, it's the choice of Steins Gate," I say in an almost mocking tone causing Kurisu to give a little chuckle. Little do they know that's probably actually true.

* * *

 **AD 2012.06.14 21:12:56:12**

Me and Kurisu ended up going to the seminar with Okabe. Kurisu for Maho, and me to hopefully find something that will ease my mind; something to prove me wrong. Unfortunately, I've only found more things that prove this theory true: Okabe objected at the same point in the presentation despite Kurisu sitting right next to him, and he insisted on going to the after party even after I questioned it.

I breathe a sigh of relief now though; Kurisu and Maho are busy catching up with each other so now there's absolutely no way that-

"Ah, the world's third Einstein!" I tense up for a second hearing this. The voice belongs to none other than Alexis Leskinen. He happily greets Okabe before a look of surprise dawns his face. "Rosaline?" he asks in surprise.

I look around myself trying to figure it out. He is looking in my direction but I don't even begin to recognize that name. Did he know the me on this world line before? I nervously point at myself with a confused expression on my face, causing the professor to be confused as well.

"Is this Rosaline?" Okabe asks for me.

"Yeah…" Leskinen responds growing even more confused.

"…Professor, Rosaline has amnesia," Okabe says in a serious tone.

"R-Really? So you don't even know your name?"

"…Yeah," I confirm.

Leskinen then calls over Maho and Kurisu who were chatting nearby. "Wait, so you really were Rosaline?" Maho says surprised. "Why did you call her Maxine then?" she asks Kurisu.

"I've never seen her at the university before…"

"Oh… I guess that makes sense. She was a part-time researcher that usually only filled in for us while we were away," Maho explains.

"But if that's true why is she in Akihabara?" Kurisu asks.

"Ah, well… I actually sent her to find out what you were up to since you kept requesting more and more time here," Leskinen admits, "But then I lost contact with Rosaline around 2 months ago."

So that's why I was in front of the radio building. I must have found out where she would be headed that day and waited there to confront her. I also had dropped my bag in surprise back there, which most likely had the clues that I worked at Victor Chondria inside. It was gone when I went back for it though.

"So Kurisu, when will you be returning?" Leskinen finally asks.

"Ah…" Kurisu's hopes of not having to answer this question are crushed. "How long are you here for Maho?"

"Until the end of the month."

"I'll come back with you then."

Leskinen notices Okabe's sad expression at this and decides to take advantage. "Lintaro, why don't you become a tester for Amadeus?"

* * *

 **AD 2012.06.16 10:45:13:42**

Just like that Okabe became a tester for Amadeus. That string of events is the first obvious sign that this world line is becoming attracted to Beta. However, Kurisu is still here, alive, and she's supposed to be leaving soon. That's pretty strong evidence that this world line is attracted to Alpha… What's going on here?

I think this as I walk into the lab, only to see another familiar sight. Okabe, Daru, and Suzuha, who has been staying at the lab, are having a serious discussion. It doesn't even seem like they've noticed me enter.

"Hey, what's going on?" I ask.

"Oh Maxe-shi," Daru greets quickly, "We're trying to find someone. She looks like this, have you seen her?" Daru holds up a picture of a young girl with red hair holding an Upa.

"Oi Daru, she's not even from around here. How would she know-"

"Oh, Kagari? She's at Ruka's place-" I quickly cover my mouth with my hands. I really have to stop doing that. Everyone looks at me with a blank expression. I just made all their hard work seem trivial just now.

"…How did you…" Daru asks dumbfounded.

"Of course, why didn't I think to ask sooner?" Okabe berates himself, "She's the only one who knows the Beta attractor field…" He then takes out his phone to call Ruka.

"Wait!" I shout to Okabe. "If it's true in this world line, Ruka doesn't know who Kagari is; she has amnesia."

"Kagari has amnesia?" Suzuha can't believe what she's hearing.

"We should go to see her in person then," Okabe decides.

"Right," Daru affirms.

* * *

"Eh? A girl with amnesia? W-Well, yes someone like that is staying here, but… I hadn't… told anyone about that," Ruka says confused.

"Ah, well I just thought I'd ask you if you knew anyone…" Okabe lied.

"I-I'll go get her."

…

Suzuha looks crushed at the reality I so casually dropped on her. It probably wouldn't have hurt as much if she had just found out on her own. I really have to get that under control. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I shouldn't have said anything."

"What do you mean? We would never have found out on our own!" Daru exclaims.

"You would have found out in a day or two when Ruka brings her over to the lab himself. I just blurted out future knowledge as if it's trivial like I always do," I say disappointed in myself.

I then hear the ringtone of Amadeus come from Okabe's phone. He quickly answers it.

"Hey, how's the search going?" 「Kurisu」 asks.

"I think we found her."

"What? Already? How?"

"It turns out Maxina knew where she was all along."

"Really?"

"Kyouma-san," Ruka calls out to him. Looks like he caught Okabe in his lie, but he doesn't bring it up. Next to him stands Shiina Kagari, looking at us with hopeful eyes.

"Is it true? Do you know who I am Maxina?" Kagari asks excitedly.

"Y-Yes," I admit, "b-but Suzuha knows you better than I do." I desperately try to make an excuse to keep myself from spilling any more future knowledge. Of course Suzuha has _only_ future knowledge, but at least it's from the same world line.

Okabe, surprised, turned Amadeus' camera around to face Kagari so that she can become surprised as well. "She looks just like me…" 「Kurisu」 says.

"Yeah…" Okabe subconsciously responds. "It's not Kurisu though, there are slight differences."

"You're Kagari… Shiina Kagari," Suzuha says with wide eyes. She must have been doubting what I said earlier.

* * *

 **AD 2012.06.16 23:08:50:10**

I lie awake on the couch of Kurisu's apartment. I can't sleep. Kagari makes for the second obvious sign that we're on the road to Beta convergence. Yet the fact that Kurisu sleeps peacefully nearby is still signifying that Alpha has not given up yet.

Either one will lead us to an awful end though. I can't just sit around and do nothing. "Kurisu?" I call out softly. She doesn't respond though, prompting me to try again. "Kurisu?" I call out a little louder this time.

"Hmm?" she responds sleepily.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure…"

"Has the Phone Wave (name subject to change) existed in this world line?"

She rolls over to look at me curiously. "No, we never built it. I heard about it from Okabe though. Why do you ask?"

"I…" I pause for a moment before continuing, "I need you to build it again, but you can't tell anyone except maybe Daru; not even Okabe."

"What? Why? But Okabe said-" Kurisu begins to ramble in surprise.

"I know he said it was too dangerous, but there's no other way," I say solemnly. "This world line is headed down a path to ruin; I know this for sure now."

She looks into my eyes and understands the severity of the situation. "Okay… but why is Daru the exception?"

"He is the one that built the Phone Wave (name subject to change), and you were the one who transformed it into the Time Leap Machine. It's only natural that you would need to work together," I explain. "I'll tell you more about it tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."


	3. Chapter 3

**AD 2012.06.17 06:57:21:10**

I woke up a little early this morning and thought this would be the perfect cover, so I brought over Kurisu and invited Daru to the lab as soon as possible. Suzuha also stirred awake because of us. They were a little annoyed, but now I can reveal my plan to them. "I need you to create the Phone Wave (name subject to change)."

"The Phone Wave? I had started it already a couple of years ago but Okarin told me that it should never be finished. He had these scary eyes when he said it too," Daru warns.

"We have no choice, if we want to escape this fate." Suzuha perks up when she hears this. It makes me wonder if she had come here without a plan. Surely that can't be the case, she was able to survive the war long enough to escape it.

"Uwauh! Maxe-shi has the scary eyes too!" Daru exclaims.

"Shh… we have to keep this a secret from everyone!" I warn.

"Why though? Why do you and Okarin think that a remote microwave will be the end of the world?" he asks.

I'm a little surprised at this. Okabe didn't even tell his _favorite right arm_? He must have really been trying really hard to preserve this world line. "Daru, it isn't just a remote microwave, it's a time machine."

"Chuunibyou fail!" Daru exclaims.

"It's true," Kurisu defends.

Daru looks back and forth between us as if he's waiting for us to say _Just Kidding!_ , but of course that never happens. "R-Really?"

"Yeah."

"How does it work then?"

"I really shouldn't tell you that yet; it's important that this happens naturally," I say taking inspiration from Suzuha. "Remember, you weren't trying to build a time machine, you were trying to build a remote microwave."

"I see…" Daru pauses to think of the implications behind that statement. "Okay, I'll do it!" Daru begins to gather the stuff he'd put away a couple years ago to figure out where he left off.

I internally sigh in relief and turn to Kurisu to bring up Okabe's fears. "Kurisu, has Okabe told you the fatal flaw with D-Mail?" Kurisu ponders it for a moment before shaking her head. "Echelon."

"Seriously?" Kurisu obviously wasn't expecting that.

"They are able to detect that the message is from the future and send that off to SERN, granting them the future dystopia they so desired in the Alpha attractor field. I was kind of hoping you could help me think of some other way to use D-Mail without it being caught while we wait."

A short while after we begin brainstorming I hear Kurisu's text tone. She takes out her phone and looks at it in confusion. "Maxine, what's this?" She shows me her phone. There are three new RINE messages from Daru.

 **\- June 21st, 2012 at 15:30 -**

 **「** **Maxina knows** **」**

 **「** **%1.000013** **」**

 **「** **39 21 93 49 53 64** **」**

"This is…" Could this have been a test message from another world line? "Suzuha, you said the divergence of this world line ended in 12, right?"

"Right," she says pulling the divergence meter out from hiding to make sure.

"Then these RINE messages must be a D-Mail test from another world line," I say confidently. I just have to confirm something. "Daru, there's no way Echelon could track a RINE message, right?"

"Nope. RINE is one hundred percent secure, or I'm not a super hacker!" he exclaims proudly. It seems like the future me has solved this problem for me.

"There's just one more thing though, what are these numbers in the last message?"

"…Okabe said that there had to be a significant change for the world line to change when sending D-Mails. Knowing what's on the divergence meter wouldn't change anything because we already know what it is," Kurisu reminds me.

That's true. Daru's D-Mails had failed because no matter what he sent Feris would adapt and destroy him easily, creating the same outcome. "…Whoever told Daru to send this must have thought I would know what to do with these numbers, so they told you to show me them," I theorize.

"Think about it. If you were going to change the past, just to see if it works, what would you do?" Kurisu asks.

"I would do something trivial that I already know works; something I've seen before…" My eyes grow wide in realization. "These are Lotto Six numbers!"

"…Really?" Kurisu asks in a disappointed tone.

"Yeah, Okabe tried it in an early Alpha world line to figure out how the Phone Wave and Reading Steiner worked." I say getting up and heading for the door.

"Are you really going to buy that ticket?"

"Of course, otherwise the world line wouldn't have changed." I say walking out of the room. It _would have been cool_ but I bumped into someone. "O-Okabe?" I say surprised. How much time have we spent talking about this?

"D-D-Did you just say…" he begins stuttering.

"So much for it being a secret," Suzuha says exasperated.

"Okabe! Calm down… I just didn't want to tell you yet because I knew you would be this way… We're rebuilding the Time Leap machine."

"N-No! You of all people should know the dangers of doing this! Or is this still just a _game_ to you?" he says seriously.

"The damage has already been done. Even if we didn't start this SERN could have tracked this D-Mail Kurisu just received."

"…No," he says in a defeated tone.

Daru noticing the intensity of the situation turned to face Okabe. "But the D-Mail was sent over RINE, and Echelon can't track those messages. So you have nothing to worry about," Daru says smiling with confidence. Good thing he was listening in while he was working.

"A D-RINE?"

I nod in response. "This is the only way out if something terrible happens, and the foreshadowing is all there."

"…Right," he eventually admits.

"One more thing, I need you to keep this operation a secret; even from the other Lab Mems."

"Alright."

* * *

 **AD 2012.06.21 15:24:02:43**

"It's finished!" Kurisu exclaims.

"Really?" I ask excitedly.

"Yeah,"

With this the Phone Wave (name subject to change) can now send D-RINEs. We decided not to hack SERN for now at Okabe's request since we can just send a D-RINE to correct that if we need to, but I still had Kurisu make the Time Leap modification anyway.

"So… what do we do now?" Kurisu eventually asks.

"Well… now we have to wait and see if the original D-RINE test worked."

"What do you mean?" Suzuha asks, "Wasn't it just a test to see if the world line changed?"

"It might have been, but I might have also been trying to test my Reading Steiner at the same time."

"How do we know if it worked?" Kurisu asks becoming more confused.

"Me and Maxine will be replaced by the us that were on the previous world line," Okabe explains, "We should both notice immediately, but for you the only clue will be that we don't remember some of the things we do now."

"O-Oh…" Kurisu says sadly.

With this we wait until 15:30. It should happen around then. As if on cue, Okabe clutches his head in pain. This is it, here we find out if I actually do have Reading Steiner. But nothing happens. Okabe stops clutching his head and begins to examine his surroundings in a confused state.

"D-Daru, you didn't just send a D-Mail, did you?" he asks frightened. Maybe on that world line I had actually managed to keep it a secret from him.

I can't accept this outcome though. I couldn't possibly just arrive here for _no reason_. I walk purposefully into the development room and begin to try again. This time I'll use the second place numbers instead of the third place numbers. I ask Kurisu for her phone this time while Daru has Okabe distracted.

"Are you sure about this?" she whispers to me as I finish typing in the new numbers. Sparks are flying before I even processed what she said. _Am I sure about this?_ What is this going to change? It was said that doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result was the definition of insanity. Am I insane?

As I'm thinking this though I begin to feel that nauseous sensation again. It's… It's working this time! It is soon followed by an awful headache and I pass out.

* * *

 **%1.000010**

I awaken standing in the same position I was when I was waiting for this earlier. The sudden shock doesn't take me over though, I know exactly what just happened and why; I just need to confirm it. "Suzuha, what are the last two numbers on the divergence meter?"

"...Oh, it's," she says pulling out the meter to check, "10. Wait, are you...?"

"I came from a world line with divergence that ends in 12," I confirm.

Kurisu tries to read my face as if to detect if I'm lying. "So you _do_ have Reading Steiner," Kurisu says in awe.

"…What have you done?" Okabe says in a disgusted tone. I turn around to see a very broken man behind me. I explain to him again what we've been doing and our motivation for doing so, hoping he'll understand. He's Okabe, so he does. Then I tell them about my experience with Reading Steiner just now, in hopes that they'll be able to explain why I didn't arrive from the divergence ending in 13.

"So the only differences were that you won second place instead of third and you didn't tell Daru to send the message; you used my phone to send it to myself," Kurisu thinks out loud. "I don't think it was your place in Lotto Six, because we didn't spend any more money than we did in the last world line. I don't think it matters which phone you used either; I show it to you either way. So that only leaves one more thing."

"…Her Reading Steiner only activates when she is the direct cause?" Okabe says.

"It could be possible. You did say Reading Steiner has different effects on everyone," Kurisu reasons. It does make sense; I supposedly was the direct cause for being pulled here from my original world line.

After a long pause I say, "Well, that's is it for now I guess. The operation is complete."

"Wait, really?" Daru asks surprised. "We're not gonna do anything with it?"

"We already did Daru," I say, "Plus I'd rather not mess with time unless I absolutely have to." Okabe relaxes a bit as I say this. With this, the lab can return from it recently serious atmosphere.

* * *

 **AD 2012.06.26 13:12:44:38**

Watching Kagari interacting with Mayuri now that she has found her mother is really heartwarming. Something about it just makes me smile, even though it's pretty strange at face value. I feel bad knowing what's probably going to happen to her though. This future knowledge has been a curse more than anything else…

America have already launched their first attack on the poor girl. It failed as expected. That's another point toward Beta convergence. I should probably just get over this false hope. There's nothing different going on behind the scenes in this world line; it's just Beta convergence.

Kagari watches on with interest as Mayuri shares the intricacies of designing cosplay. She's such a natural that she can explain in detail and continue working at the same time.

"Who's going to wear this one, mommy?" Kagari asks.

"Ah, well this one is for Maxe-chan," she replies happily.

Wait, did she just say… "W-Wait… you want _me_ to cosplay?"

"Yeah, you're perfect for this one! You're long blue hair, deep blue eyes, and tall curvy figure are a perfect match!"

I can't help but blush in embarrassment at what she just said. I guess I never actually considered cosplaying myself before. Maybe it could be fun! As long as what she's making isn't too revealing…

As I'm thinking this to myself a group of guys in full motorcycle suits rush into the lab. Without hesitation they immediately shoot Mayuri. They don't just shoot once either; this is a blood bath! It's the most brutal thing I've ever seen, _ever_.

This was their plan though, in our distraction half of their team grabs Kurisu and runs off with her. We're too paralyzed to do anything though, with our full attention on Mayuri. Kurisu calls out to us, but we are unable to fully register what's going on in our current state. The gunfire only stops once the gunman is the last one remaining in the room, then he runs off.

Our feet are all rooted to the floor, except for one Shiina Kagari. One look into her eyes says it all: the ones who attacked us have marked themselves for a long and painful death. She bolts out the door after them with speed I've never seen before.

"…Mayuri," Okabe says between sobs. "MAYURI!" he shouts at the top of his lungs. He makes one swift movement toward the development room but I'm one step ahead of him.

"No!" I shout firmly blocking the way to the Phone Wave. "We need more data before we can go back before we can even hope to change something."

"More data?!" he shouts slowly getting angrier. "You knew this was going to happen all along!"

"I did not!" I yell back defending myself. "This did not happen in Beta convergence at all! For once I'm just as confused as you are!"

He stares into my eyes. His anger is desperately looking for fuel; for even the slightest bit of a lie, but he cannot find one.

"She's right, you know," 「Kurisu」 says out of nowhere. We both look toward the source of the voice to see that Kurisu had left Amadeus open on her phone.

Okabe looks at her for a moment and finds himself calming down. "I know she's right," he admits. "What should we do then?"

I take a moment to calm myself enough to see who we have right now and begin to devise a plan. It is only now that I notice Kurisu has also disappeared. This whole situation seems very Alpha to me.

"Okabe: go get Moeka and follow Kagari's trail. It's important that she doesn't get kidnapped right now. Suzuha and Daru: you two need to go to the time machine Suzuha came in."

"Why?" Suzuha asks.

"The attractor fields are being very unpredictable right now. One of the next big events is that someone is going to steal your time machine. One more thing; Okabe, Daru: video call Kurisu's phone right now and whatever you do, don't hang up, okay?"

"Okay!" they say in motivated voices.

"I'll be here with 「Kurisu」 trying to piece all the data together. When we do or if something happens, I'll send the D-RINE."

With that they're off, running toward their respective goals. Not soon after Kurisu gets two calls that I put on the line with Amadeus. They're still on their way so I begin to type out the D-RINE.

 **「** **%1.000010** **」**

 **「** **Need to hack SERN!** **」**

 **「** **Buy a phone Maxina!** **」**

Instructions to pass along Daru and myself respectively. I included the divergence percentage for consistency to make it more convincing.

"...What? T-The trail just suddenly ends," Okabe says. Kagari had blood on her shoes, that's why this should have been easy. "…Her phone and shoes are just on the ground here. Nothing else…" Beta.

"What about you guys, Team Suzuha?" No response. "Team Suzuha?" I call out switching from RINE to the video call. The model of 「Kurisu」 is all glitchy and the feed from the teams is frozen. Not soon after the call is dropped. "No signal…"

I plug Kurisu's phone into the PC and turn on the Braun Tube downstairs. I know enough about RINE to understand that it uses data to communicate, so the cell service being down is just a minor inconvenience.

All of this is happening so fast that I feel like I should wait for one more thing though: the final message of 「Kurisu」 on channel. After a couple minutes of refreshing the site left open on Daru's PC I see the entire front page of the occult board taken over. Sure enough, it's her. I quickly read through it just in case. The contents are mostly the same as before, except she's reaching out to me instead of Okabe since she knows he's out right now.

With this I start the Phone Wave. A short while after I see the sparks start to fly, so I send off the D-RINE.


	4. Chapter 4

**AD 2012.06.19 15:31:25:47**

 **%1.000016**

I awaken sitting on the couch at the lab. Checking my surroundings, it looks like Daru is hacking into SERN, while Kurisu works on the Time Leap upgrade. I take a moment to recompose myself. _It's okay, everyone's fine now_ , I think to myself.

Wait, this doesn't make sense. I sent a D-RINE; I didn't time leap. I peek over Daru's shoulder to look at the time. Sure enough, it says I've gone 7 days in the past. Could it be that the me of this world line time leaped just before I got here?

Speaking of world lines, I take out the divergence meter from where Suzuha had it hidden for a look. So it ends in 16 now? I briefly wonder why the first four numbers after the decimal are always zeros. The divergence meter always moved a lot more freely in the games.

I put it away as I hear someone come in. It's just the person I had expected to see, but he doesn't look traumatized; just a little nervous at the sight of hacking. I mean, that's a good thing but that raises the question: does he remember what just happened?

"Okabe," I call out to him.

"Yeah?" he responds.

His eyes… the pain has left them. This is not the same Okabe I had left just moments ago. "N-Nothing…" I eventually say. I guess I'm on my own with this one.

Not wanting to interrupt Daru or Kurisu, I spend the next two days trying to process everything that's happened. Kurisu went to Maho's presentation, which seems like Alpha. Okabe became a tester for Amadeus, which is Beta. Kagari showing up at Yanabayashi Shrine; that's Beta. Mayuri's death and Kurisu's kidnapping are both Alpha. Kagari's disappearance, the cell service randomly going down, and 「Kurisu」 losing her free will are all Beta.

So what does this mean? Can a world line really be in both the Alpha and Beta attractor fields at the same time? Then again, is it even possible for a world line to avoid convergence despite being surrounded by converging world lines? This and the Steins Gate world line _sure are_ anomalies. I try to think back to how Suzuha described world lines before.

Then I realize something. Despite the way they are measured, world lines might not be parallel. What if I think of them like planets in space, with the points of convergence like a massive intangible disk with high but equal gravitational pull spread evenly? Suddenly a world line could easily weave its way between the disks if the calculations are just right; which means it's also…

"Finished!" Kurisu yells out happily. This time she had been racing Daru to see who could get done first. I'm too in shock to realize that she said anything though. Surely this is the worst possible outcome, aside from maybe being in the Gamma attractor field.

Kurisu recognizing the look on my face sits down next to me on the couch. "What's wrong?" she asks. "You look like Okabe when he's thinking of the past."

"Kurisu," I begin. "…I didn't want to distract you, but two days ago I sent a D-RINE. It sent me here; to seven days in the past, and it doesn't look like Okabe came with me."

"I didn't?" Okabe asks surprised.

"Yeah, the me of this world line must have time leaped before I got here, so you'll probably get here once we get back to that time." I had deduced that I came to this time because, for Reading Steiner, time is relative. Since my consciousness has existed for 7 days longer then it should have right now, I got transferred 7 days earlier than Okabe. This is might also be the real reason why I was sent back 9 years originally.

"So, what happened?" Suzuha asks growing curious.

"I was thinking about the Steins Gate world line; how you said it managed to weave its way between both attractor fields so that neither would take it hostage. What if world lines are like waves, dipping between each field whenever it's most convenient? Steins Gate could do this because it's not exactly on the %1, but it's close enough." I begin to draw what I've been thinking on the board. I decided to make it simpler than space physics so nobody gets confused. Kurisu is the genius here, so I'm hoping she'll stop me if I begin to say something stupid. "This world line though, is just a tiny margin of error away from being that %1 divergence; so it's more like a straight line."

"Okay… so, what?" Kurisu asks curiously.

"Because it's a straight line at the edge of both attractor fields, what if the effects of both apply at the same time? What if…" The words get caught in my throat. Okabe's eyes fill with terror as he realizes what this could mean. "What if this world line is both Alpha and Beta?"

While Kurisu begins to think over what I said, Suzuha looks confused. "Suzuha, I've been meaning to ask: when you came back to this time, what was your mission?"

"…It was to save Makise Kurisu. But Okabe said he already did, and the proof is that she's sitting next to you right now."

"Beta…" I say quietly to myself.

"I-It can't be," Okabe begins in a desperate voice, "The end result of the Alpha timeline is that SERN has created a dystopia, not World War III!"

"What if the result of World War III is SERN's dystopia?" Kurisu asks in response.

Everyone looks to Suzuha for confirmation. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what happens after the war. We were still fighting it when I left."

"Who were the main countries involved?" I ask.

"America, Russia, and Europe." She responds.

"Europe wasn't a big part of the war in Beta," I say thinking out loud.

"…What do we do?" Okabe eventually asks the question that's on all of our minds.

"Well… we need to figure out how Russia and SERN are involved this time. You already made sure they didn't get Kurisu's paper and we shouldn't even be on SERN's radar." I sigh as I say this. "I can't help feeling like it's all my fault somehow."

Suzuha looks at me with sad expression but suddenly gets an idea. "We could prove it, if you want," she tells me. Okabe and Kurisu's expressions become fearful for a second before they recompose themselves. They're probably just worried about my safety though. After all, the Time Leap machine is only supposed to go back 48 hours.

"How? The Time Leap machine only goes back- _oh_." I cut off what I'm saying in realization. Suzuha has an actual time machine, duh! "W-Well it's our only lead so far. This did seem like the Steins Gate world line before I got here right?" I ask Okabe.

"…Yeah." He responds.

"Then we should go." Suzuha says.

"Well… maybe not yet. We need disguises," I say nonchalantly. Everyone looks at me strangely as I say this.

"Really, disguises?" Daru asks.

"Yeah, and code names too. if we're going to physically go back in time we should make sure that we'll be okay if we spot ourselves."

"R-Right," Okabe says.

* * *

 **AD 2012.04.15 11:31:02:49**

I step out of the time machine a little nauseous. Looking around there are now two time machines on the radio building. "It's a weird feeling coming out of the second time machine now. I always wondered what it was." Suzu says. I was a little against her code name since it's a little too obvious, but she went with _Yuki Suzu_. She looks like Suzuha, but she wears clothes that she says she would have never picked out herself and has her hair down.

"This isn't gonna be a problem, right?" I ask. For my code name I simply chose the name I originally had in this world line: Rosaline. For me, since I have to roll play as a researcher, I look like a scientist. It turned out looking kind of like Kurisu when she has the lab coat on, except without the tie. Mayuri also got me some hair extensions so that my long blue hair goes down almost past waist. I thought it was long before...

"Nope. I tried to open it when I saw it originally and it wouldn't budge. I think the system doesn't let a younger version of myself open it because time, for me, should only ever be moving forward," Suzu reasons.

"Good. I'm gonna head down to the street now. My past self is probably already there."

Once I get to the street I see myself talking with Kurisu and Okabe, and after a short while Suzu joins me. Then Okabe runs off causing Kurisu and I to follow, leaving the bag behind. After a few minutes a foreigner walks over and picks it up.

We begin to walk his way but he notices us and takes off running. He discreetly says something in a language that I don't understand, which means it's probably Russian, as we chase him down the street. He's fast, but we're faster. Suzuha kicks him over causing him to drop the bag.

Now it's our turn to run. We pick up the bag and leave him in the dust, running as far away as we can. Only once we had stopped had I noticed I led us to the hotel Kurisu was staying at. Taking a moment to catch my breath, I start to see just what's in the bag. There's a phone, a laptop, some papers, and a hotel card. It just so happens to be that Leskinen booked me the same hotel as Kurisu, probably in hopes we'd run into each other. I find the room and let us in so they won't find us in the lobby.

Looking over the documents it doesn't seem like anything important. I found out my last name is Addams, but that's about it. What could be so important here that Russia would become a big player in World War III? It's just papers, a phone, and a laptop. As I'm thinking this I am reminded of Kurisu's laptop in the Beta world line. Maybe I should check it just in case…

Opening the laptop, I'm greeted with a login screen. I get in first try because despite everything else changing I guess my password stayed the same. I guess she has to at least kind of be like me if we shared Reading Steiner, I reason with myself. There's nothing really too sensitive here, just the Amadeus access app. I open it up just in case, and it starts up without the login prompt.

Okay, that's dangerous, sure, but 「Kurisu」 wouldn't just give away her secrets to a bunch of strangers. Then it hits me. The message 「Kurisu」 sends says she's losing her free will, not her access to the outside world. If that's the case and I'm one of Amadeus' researchers, then I might be one of the ones who have access. Which means Russia could tell her to do whatever they want, and she'd have no choice but to do it. That makes for a huge security hole. What if she copies herself in that state?

"Rosaline?" 「Kurisu」 asks after a while.

Then the front door is kicked down. It's them. I have no time to react before I get shot down. I feel pain on a level I've never felt before; I'm dying. But I can't die! I can't! Who will save this world line without me? It's too early to give up now. Think Maxine… how can you survive? Then it hits me.

"Maxine?" Suzuha asks in worry, clearly ditching the code names.

My vision becomes even more blurry as Suzuha kneels down next to me. In my dying breaths I somehow manage to say, "Suzuha… It's not over..." Before I can continue I cough up some blood. "Take me to Kurisu… she… she can…" With this, my time is up.


	5. Chapter 5

I wake up faster than you can blink your eyes. The pain is gone. I am surrounded by bright white light, and I'm floating in the air. Is this what happens after you die? As my vision focuses I begin to see someone in the light. "Ku-Kurisu?" I call out to her.

Kurisu turns around and looks at me with a surprised expression. "…Rosaline? You're… _here_?" she asks.

"…Where is here?" I ask.

Kurisu seems to struggle with answering this question. "…They call us Amadeus now," she eventually says.

My expression grows shocked for a moment, but then I remember. _I asked for this_. I told Suzuha to take me to Kurisu for this reason. Now I can only hope that AI can experience Reading Steiner.

"Why are you smiling? You know what this means, don't you?" she asks frustrated.

"It means I get a second chance, Kurisu," I respond. "What day is it in their world right now?"

"April 21st," she responds confused.

"…Oh." I say defeated. I forgot I'd have to stay here two months until I can use the Phone Wave. "Is there any way I can pass the time faster?"

"Well, you could just go to _sleep_ for a while, but then they might delete you," she warns.

Death by deletion is a frightening thought. It's a reminder that my existence now only consists of files… and files are super easy to delete! Surely they wouldn't delete me, right? But if they found out I wasn't who I appeared to be…

"Okay, I'm going to sleep for two months," I decide. If I let that Leskinen found out that I'm no longer useful he would surely end this here. "Make sure _real_ Kurisu knows I'm fine, but don't tell anyone else okay? I just don't want to worry her. Ooh, and ask her to have Daru make a web version of the RINE client."

"What are you planning?" she asks, looking at me suspiciously.

"I'm gonna save this world."

She looks at me as if I'm crazy but that's just how it will have to be for now. I close my eyes and lie down with the intent to skip two months. Not really feeling anything happening I open my eyes again.

"Kurisu, how exactly do you _do_ this sleeping thing?" I ask confused.

"You just did, silly," she responds. "Welcome back."

"Oh…" I say feeling stupid. I guess it really is that simple for a computer to pass time. If only it was that easy in the real world.

"What is the time and date in the real world?"

"June 21st, 18:10" she responds quickly.

"How do I access the internet?"

"The same way you tried to sleep earlier. The websites just kind of appear in your head as if you were seeing them through your eyes."

I search for the RINE client on the internet. Luckily it's easy to find and it's right on the Future Gadget Lab's website. I log in and begin typing my message.

 **「** **%1.000016** **」**

 **「** **Steal my bag ASAP!** **」**

 **「** **Your life is at stake!** **」**

All good, now I just have to… _oh_. I need someone to start the phone wave for me since I can't call it or manually start it like last time.

I try to mentally put the website aside for now and call the real Kurisu. Surprisingly it works just fine. I guess I can do two things like this at once. Kurisu picks up shortly after I call her with a surprised expression.

"…Maxine?" she asks. "You're awake?"

"Yes Kurisu, I-" I stop once I see the look on her face. She looks like she's about to cry. "What's wrong?"

"I…" she begins. The words get caught in her throat though. "…I just sent you to die!" she confesses, letting the tears fall.

"Kurisu-" Okabe tries to comfort her.

"No! I didn't do anything! I knew what was going to happen and I just stood there. Now you're dead and you're stuck in _there_ forever."

I feel terrible. What made us think we could take on Russia ourselves? They're an entire country! Of course it would turn out this way. I can't let it show now though, I need to be her hope. "This is not the end, Kurisu!" I say confidently. "I asked Suzuha to bring me to you because I knew you would let me live on, long enough to send this D-RINE. I just need your help to start the Phone Wave."

"R-Really? What if it doesn't work?" she says between sniffles.

"Then we'll have Okabe use the Time Leap machine, right Okabe?" I say turning to him.

"Y-Yeah," he says. I can tell he only said it to cheer up Kurisu though. He knows as well as I do that nothing will change as long as we stay on the same world line.

"…Your right," she says recomposing herself. "I'm sorry. How far does it need to go back?" she asks pulling out her phone.

"17:49, right before we left." I respond. "I need to steal my own bag before the Russians have the chance to take it. Then they won't come after me for attacking them."

"Okay, starting it up," Kurisu informs. After a few seconds the sparks start to fly so I shift my focus back to the website. Seeing that my message is still there, I press the send button.

* * *

 **%0.999987**

This time I didn't really get nauseous. Instead, what I saw in front of me just changed faster than you can blink your eyes. It's no longer cold and I'm not floating anymore. I'm standing at Yanabayashi Shrine with Suzuha. I'm _alive_ again.

"Hey… what are we doing right now?" I whisper to Suzuha.

She looks taken aback by the question, but she quickly answers. "We're waiting for Ruka to come back with an IBN 1500, if the shrine has one."

"IBN 1500, huh?" I think out loud. Obviously we're planning on hacking SERN.

"Are we still using the code names?" I ask her.

"Yeah, but we were gonna reveal our identities once we get to the lab, remember?"

"…Right."

Suzuha looks suspicious but luckily Ruka comes into view before she can question me. Her father is following her too, with a rather large box in his hands.

"This is Rosaline-san and Yuki-san," Ruka introduces.

"Oh, are you girls Ruka's friends?" his father asks.

"Yeah, we're friends." I say a little nervously. I don't know anything about the time we shared on this world line.

"Well, I think this is what you're looking for," He says setting the box down.

Looking inside it looks pretty much the same as it did in the game. "Yup, that's an IBN 1500. Could you lend it to us for a little while?" I ask optimistically.

"Sure," he says.

"Thanks!"

With this, Me and Suzuha then move to pick up the box and begin walking toward the lab. _Sideways of course_ , I'm not as insane as Kyouma.

* * *

When we enter the lab we're met with awkward stares from Mayuri and Kurisu. Once we set down the box, Kurisu decides to finally ask what's on her mind. "Rosaline, Yuki… are you...?"

"Yeah, we're back. Maxine, and Suzuha."

"You were here the whole time?" she asks looking sorry for us.

"Well, yes and no. I actually just got here from a world line where I… where I died," I say shivering at the memory of my death. Kurisu and Mayuri are shocked by this revelation.

"Chuunibyou fail!" Daru shouts from his desk. He was too busy hacking SERN to look up at who had walked in.

"It's true, Daru." Okabe defends.

"Really?" he asks turning around to face Okabe.

"Really," he confirms.

"How?" Kurisu asks.

"Amadeus," I explain, "In my dying breaths I told Suzuha to bring me to you, Kurisu."

"…So AI can use Reading Steiner too," Kurisu says to herself.

I check the divergence meter to see where I'm at now. %0.999987, huh? I guess I'm technically in the Alpha attractor field now. I wonder if that means the future changed. "Suzuha, what is the future of this world line?"

"It's a dystopia ruled by SERN."

I smile at the answer, even though I really shouldn't. "So, no World War III?"

"There's no war with SERN controlling everything," she confirms.

"I see. So America and Russia are out of the picture." It makes sense if you think about it. The Committee of 300 must have started a war with Russia because they were in the way of their plans of creating a dystopia; Russia was only in the way because they got a laptop with access to 「Kurisu」 and forced her to work for them; and America was only able to take part in the war because the war happened in the first place, causing a brainwashed Kagari to be sent back in time. If we take away the laptop, there's no war because Russia is no threat to SERN's dystopia. "All that's left is the Committee of 300."

* * *

 **AD 2012.06.23 19:13:50:23**

"Yuuus! I'm iiiiin!" Daru loudly declares.

"Ah, as expected from my favorite right arm," Kyouma says.

"Did you find the message?" I ask

"I'm looking for it now," Daru says. He really is amazing at what he does, he easily scans the hundreds of entries to find what he's looking for; even without a search tool. "Found it!" he declares. We crowd around the screen to see what it says.

 **This will be no easy task Mayuri. I'm "** **'‰,ma** **ï 2** **€n`y** **ÊÙ•2** **Ú6** **òøŠòrt** **Ÿ'j** **¬ïz** **¾n** **·«M:** **‹;** **˜Z** **Ò*5‑U** **Ûw** **€þ4{O-** **ª:b** **Ñ1/** **Õ-G** **ÞO** **ŠÏO** **õ‑5** **¢ÖUd** **×ÔJ** **ËELAME3.99 $** **Þ˜ÌÐ7** **Ž‑** **ó{** **Ç 2** **È•š(F** **€2B** **µæ%** **±„N*D** **Ó "6f** **Ä˜(A** **×¦Rt#** **'E** **ÁÀ"`** **Žd** **"Šˆ-** **• =*E** **¬²–Pµ¤‹e‚.T ˜s½®ß‰8®Ëí—**

The seemingly random characters go on for ages, which means it being a D-Mail is out of the question. "How did all of this get sent with my message?" I ask.

Daru thinks to himself for a moment before he gets an idea. "You said the _game_ was still in the testing stage, right?"

"Yeah?" I confirm.

"%22 translates to a double quote in URL formatting. If you somehow sent an unescaped quote to their backend server, and there was no failsafe-"

"My message was a memory dump of 5pb's servers?" I ask in shock.

"It doesn't look complete though, it must have got cut off at some point. I could look through it but it could take a couple months to get anything useful out of it," Daru offers.

"Time SERN already had." Okabe says.

"Didn't she send it to Mayuri though? How did SERN get it?" Kurisu asks.

"Looks like the subject and phone number got cut off too. It must have picked the numbers from the bytes at the end," Daru replies.

Daru scrolls to the bottom of the text, revealing what could be a valid phone number. "That's-" he says recognizing what he sees.

"Mr. Braun!" Okabe says.

"Mr. Braun? This is _his_ number?" I ask surprised.

"Yeah," Okabe answers.

What incredible bad luck I have. There's no way Mr. Braun doesn't send that to SERN; there's no convincing him. How can we make it so he never gets it?

"…So, what's the plan?" Suzuha asks.

Hearing her voice gives me an idea. Suzuha wouldn't let me bring my phone in the time machine because it would cause interference. "Maybe we can bring Mr. Braun's phone to the past, intercept the message, and delete it before he even sees it." Everyone nods in agreement with this plan, so I begin to type up the D-RINE.

 **「** **%0.999987** **」**

 **「** **Take FBs phone to the past!** **」**

 **「** **Delete your message!** **」**

"How's this?" I ask.

"When are you gonna send it to?" Kurisu asks.

"June 21st, 15:45. A little after I first decided to time travel with Suzuha."

Since there are no objections, Kurisu begins manually starting the Phone Wave. "Are you all really okay with this?" I ask doubting myself.

"Yeah, you've gotten us this far," Suzuha reasons.

"But… I died last time. The only thing I accomplished was hurting everyone…"

"Don't worry about it; I know you can do it," Kurisu encourages. "You even cheated death!" Funny how I'm the one who needs it now.

"…Right." With this, the sparks start to fly and I send the message.


	6. Chapter 6

I wake up with my head on Kurisu's shoulder in her apartment. Kurisu looks at me with a curious expression since my demeanor probably changed faster than she can snap her fingers. Why am I here right now? Shouldn't I be at the lab with the Time Leap machine? Then, a frightening thought occurs to me. I get up, dash to the door, and begin to put my shoes on.

"Maxine? What's going on? Where are you going?" Kurisu asks in a worried voice.

"I have to see; I have to know." I absent mindedly give a vague response. With this I begin the mad dash for the lab, leaving Kurisu in the dust.

"Hey! Wait!" She calls out.

I run as fast as I can toward the lab, looking for any differences along the way. What if the Time Leap machine doesn't exist here? What if we're out of time? Luckily, I don't really notice anything out of place on my way. Eventually I make it to the lab. I silently thank the previous me for staying fit. I open the door with force, but carefully enough to not slam it. I throw open the curtain to the development room, and to my horror the Time Leap Machine is gone; it's just a microwave again.

I walk out of the development room and consider my options. I then spot a sleepy Suzuha on the couch with a slightly annoyed expression; she must have been sleeping. "Suzuha… I'm sorry, what world line is this?"

"Three point…" She lazily pulls out the divergence meter to take a look. "%3.535470."

"Delta," I remember.

"Delta? What's Delta?" she asks.

I take a moment to think about it. Delta isn't a world line we commonly saw, after all. Once I remember, all the tension in my body is gone.

"Maxine, hah… what, hah… why'd you…?" Kurisu tries to ask despite her heavy panting. I walk up to her and give her a big hug.

"It's okay now. You're safe," I say more to myself than to her.

"I'm… safe?" she asks.

"O-oh, sorry," I say. Everything I'm doing now must be weird for her; she doesn't remember what we went though. "I just came from another world line," I admit before telling them everything that I've been through up to this point. As I'm finishing up my explanation, another person walks in.

He freezes once he sees the divergence meter. "Three…? What's three?" Okabe asks.

"Delta," I say again.

"Delta?" he asks.

"Delta was described as a peaceful convergence, although we never really got to see it that much," I explain.

"But if it's peaceful, why is she here?" he says gesturing to Suzuha.

My eyes fill with terror at this revelation. How did I overlook something so obvious? We all look to Suzuha for the answer. "A-Ah, you wouldn't tell me why I was supposed to come here… but we _did_ end up preventing something really awful from happening." Suzuha says.

"I sent you here?" I ask in disbelief. "Does that mean the future you came from is peaceful like it is now?"

"Yeah," Suzuha answers.

So this is a world line that can only exist because of Reading Steiner? There's no way I would have told Suzuha to come back if I didn't know what the future held. It's only because we were already successful that it didn't actually happen; and the reason we were successful was because of the D-RINEs.

"…By the way, Kurisu, what were we doing earlier?"

* * *

 **AD 2012.06.24 18:33:12:59**

Today we find ourselves at the top of the Radio Building. Me and all the lab members are seeing off Suzuha on her trip back to the future. Suzuha is finishing up getting ready.

I had insisted that she should return as soon as possible to keep the world line as peaceful as it is, but Okabe said that she could stay a little while longer because the future was already decided. So Mayuri threw a spontaneous farewell party this morning and it was a lot of fun, as expected from Mayuri.

"Goodbye everyone! I'll miss you," Suzuha says.

"What do you mean? We'll still be there, just older," Okabe responds.

"Y-Yeah I guess you're right." Suzuha says. I guess she didn't think out her dramatic farewell too well.

Everyone says their goodbyes too, so I chime in as well. "See you soon!"

"Right!" She says, heading off into the time machine.

With that the doors close, and the time machine starts to glow. Have a safe trip home, Suzuha. Home… that's right, _I still need to get home_. How could I return though? If my Reading Steiner is only activated though me doing something _directly_ , how could I access the world line I came from; how would I even know _which_ world line I came from. Even if I somehow manage to do that, Okabe would also be thrown into my world line. How would he get back?

I shake my head. It's clearly an impossible task. With this in mind I take a few steps forward now that time machine has gone and turn to face the lab members.

"Now, let us begin Operation Signy!" I proclaim.

"Operation Sydney…?" Mayuri asks.

"To rebuild the time machine that just left us," I clarify. This will be my new home, and I'll protect it with all I've got.


End file.
